Unique Adriatic Souvenir a ‘Hit’

A unique souvenir created by Dubrovnik local Edi Bajurin is becoming somewhat of a hit, attracting interest from as far a field as Hong Kong…

Navis Mysterium is a coral and algae encrusted amphora of wine from the depths of the Adriatic. The original 100% Croatian product has attracted a lot of interest. Around 500 amphoras and wine are expected to be sold by the end of the year, with orders from as far as USA and Hong Kong.

The process, as Bajurin tells Du List, is very labour intensive. The bottle of wine is placed in a clay amphora and then put in sea, in cages which are padlocked to prevent theft, where it is then left up to nature to do its magic.

“You need to find a location where coral, shells and algae can grow quickly. We have a location where nothing grew and the bottle was in the sea for five years!. We found that the clay is an idea base for the coral, algae and shells to grow. With amphora you cannot predict how long the process will take, it is up to nature and the quality of the location. Some locations it takes 9 months, but mostly it takes one year,” he said.

Clay amphora work the best

As well as being labour intensive, the production process is expensive. As a result the final product – which comes in a wooden box, costs 1,500 kuna (200 euros). A bottle with box (ordinary) costs 350 kuna and cast iron stand 100 kuna.

Bajurin stresses that the product has no connection with Chinese souvenirs that flood the marker as everything down to the last detail is Croatian. Adriatic sea, ‘Plavac 2012’ wine from Janjina on the Pelješac peninsula, clay from Požega, and even the pine for the box from Varaždin.

Bajurin says he is contemplating expanding the business by doing amphora with bottles of oil.